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Publications

These publications are written or co-authored by Central Midwest Water Science Center personnel in conjuction with their work at the USGS and other government agencies.  They include USGS reports, journal articles, conference proceedings, and published abstracts that  are available in the USGS Publications  Warehouse.

Filter Total Items: 938

Flood-inundation maps for the Blue River near Red Bridge Road, Kansas City, Missouri, 2019

Digital flood-inundation maps for a 4.6-mile reach of the Blue River near Red Bridge Road in Kansas City, Missouri, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the City of Kansas City, Missouri. The flood-inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Program website at https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/flood-inu
Authors
David C. Heimann, Jonathon D. Voss, Paul H. Rydlund

Effect of groundwater withdrawals, river stage, and precipitation on water-table elevations in the Iowa River alluvial aquifer near Tama, Iowa, 2017–20

The Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa is the only federally recognized Tribe in the State of Iowa and is commonly known as the Meskwaki Nation. The Tribe owns more than 8,100 acres, referred to as the “Meskwaki Settlement.” The Meskwaki Settlement uses a well field that withdraws water from the Iowa River alluvial aquifer (IRAA) to supply drinking water to members of the Tribe. Increase
Authors
Lance R. Gruhn, Adel E. Haj

Flood of June 30–July 1, 2018, in the Fourmile Creek Basin, near Ankeny, Iowa

Major flooding occurred June 30–July 1, 2018, in the Fourmile Creek Basin in central Iowa after thunderstorm activity over the region. The largest recorded 24-hour precipitation total at a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather station was 8.72 inches in Ankeny, Iowa, and 7.54 inches in Des Moines, Iowa. A maximum peak-of-record discharge of 10,000 cubic feet per second was record
Authors
Padraic S. O'Shea, Jared C. Vegrzyn, Kimberlee K. Barnes

Periphyton biomass and community compositions as indicators of water quality in the Lower Grand River hydrologic unit, Missouri and Iowa, 2011–18

Biological communities, including periphyton, are continuously affected by chemical, physical, and other biological factors, and the health of these communities can reflect the overall health of the aquatic system. A diverse community is more robust, and communities with lower richness and evenness often indicate a degraded community dominated by few taxa tolerant to the degraded conditions, which
Authors
Heather M. Krempa

Emerging investigator series: Municipal wastewater as a year-round point source of neonicotinoid insecticides that persist in an effluent-dominated stream

Neonicotinoids in aquatic systems have been predominantly associated with agriculture, but some are increasingly being linked to municipal wastewater. Thus, the aim of this work was to understand the municipal wastewater contribution to neonicotinoids in a representative, characterized effluent-dominated temperate-region stream. Our approach was to quantify the spatiotemporal concentrations of imi
Authors
Danielle T. Webb, Hui Zhi, Dana W. Kolpin, Rebecca D. Klaper, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Gregory H. LeFevre

Prevalence of neonicotinoids and sulfoxaflor in alluvial aquifers in a high corn and soybean producing region of the Midwestern United States

Neonicotinoids have been previously detected in Iowa surface waters, but less is known regarding their occurrence in groundwater. To help fill this research gap, a groundwater study was conducted in eastern Iowa and southeastern Minnesota, a corn and soybean producing area with known heavy neonicotinoid use. Neonicotinoids were studied in alluvial aquifers, a hydrogeologic setting known to be vuln
Authors
D.A. Thompson, Dana W. Kolpin, Michelle Hladik, Kimberlee K. Barnes, J.D. Vargo, R.W. Field

Aquaculture and Irrigation Water-Use Model (AIWUM) version 1.0—An agricultural water-use model developed for the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, 1999–2017

Water use is a critical and often uncertain component of quantifying any water budget and securing reliable and sustainable water supplies. Recent water-level declines in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP), especially in the central part of the Mississippi Delta, pose a threat to water sustainability. Aquaculture and Irrigation Water-Use Model (AIWUM) 1.0, one of the first national agricultural
Authors
Jordan L. Wilson

Predicting the spatiotemporal exposure of aquatic species to intrusions of fire retardant in streams with limited data

Because fire retardant can enter streams and harm aquatic species including endangered fish, agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) must estimate the downstream extent of toxic effects every time fire retardant enters streams (denoted as an “intrusion”). A challenge in estimating the length of stream affected by the intrusion and the exposure time of species in the affected reach is the l
Authors
Chris R. Rehmann, P. Ryan Jackson, Holly J. Puglis

Groundwater-quality and select quality-control data from the National Water-Quality Assessment Project, January 2017 through December 2019

Groundwater-quality environmental data were collected from 983 wells as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Project of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Program and are included in this report. The data were collected from six types of well networks: principal aquifer study networks, which are used to assess the quality of groundwater used for public water supply; land-us
Authors
James A. Kingsbury, Laura M. Bexfield, Terri Arnold, MaryLynn Musgrove, Melinda L. Erickson, James R. Degnan, Anthony J. Tesoriero, Bruce D. Lindsey, Kenneth Belitz

Trolley Operated Automatic Discharge System (TOADS)—An automated system for horizontal profiling of water velocity and river discharge measurements

Hydroacoustics have revolutionized how the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) measures streamflow by increasing the efficiency and quality of the measurement. However, the ability to determine the full range of streamflow at a streamflow-gaging station remains limited because in-person flow measurements still must be made by qualified personnel. As a result, streamflow during flood events typically is
Authors
Kevin K. Johnson, Clayton J. Bosch

Assessment of peak flow scaling and Its effect on flood quantile estimation in the United Kingdom

Regional flood frequency analysis (RFFA) methods are essential tools to assess flood hazard and plan interventions for its mitigation. They are used to estimate flood quantiles when the at‐site record of streamflow data is not available or limited. One commonly used RFFA method is the index flood method (IFM), which assumes that peak floods satisfy the simple scaling hypothesis.In this work we pre
Authors
Giuseppe Formetta, Thomas M. Over, Elizabeth Stewart

Nutrient concentrations, loads, and yields in the Middle Iowa River Basin, Iowa

Concentrations, loads, and yields of nitrate plus nitrite, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus were assessed in the Iowa River upstream from the Coralville Reservoir in east-central Iowa. The results of this study describe baseline nutrient transport during two historical reference periods, 1980–96 and 2006–10, that can be used to evaluate the progress of the implementation of reduction strategie
Authors
Jessica D. Garrett, Stephen J. Kalkhoff